Financing U.S. exploration

This paper discusses the challenges of financing U.S. exploration from the perspective of an independent oil and gas producer. When Burlington Resources was split into a separate company from the Burlington Northern Railroad three years ago, the company owned extensive resources but had little production capability, and had to resolve the problem of raising development capital. According to the author of this paper, three key elements in the company's perception of the business environment drove its strategy: that the role of independent producers would be crucial in new onshore oil and gas development as the majors moved offshore; that energy prices would remain weak; and that financial market sentiment would not favor a move to leverage the company more highly than its starting-point of 19 percent debt-to-total capital ratio